Rock & Roll songsmith Mondo Cozmo aka Josh Ostrander recently released his third full length album via Last Gang, This is for the Barbarians, and shares the latest video from the album for “WW3” today. The video was directed by Aria Pullman and was filmed on the beaches of Colares, Portugal this spring. The song was written during the pandemic, long before the current struggle in Ukraine, though he felt a need to change some of the track’s original lyrics and leaned on a hero and friend for advice – Bruce Springsteen. “There was a line in the chorus I was concerned about with the situation in Ukraine so, shortly before the song was prepared to come out, I sent the song to Bruce and asked him what his thoughts were,” notes Ostrander. “He said that if it was possible, change it and so we did.”

This is for the Barbarians recognizes that death and life can be celebrated synchronically, pulling the darkness in to find the light inside, discovering grandeur in life’s most intimate moments. Physical copies of This Is For The Barbarians are available via Last Gang Records and the Mondo Cozmo website, and the album can be streamed digitally here: https://lnk.to/ThisisforTheBarbarians. 

The album’s title was inspired by the Barbarian poets, a group of writers who gathered in San Francisco’s Cafe Babar in the 1980s. Specifically, Ostrander was drawn to David Lerner’s work, whose energy, fervor and passion grabbed him. Reeling from loss in his family, mired in pandemic and searching for hope, Ostrander connected immediately to the dedication in one of Lerner’s books, knowing he’d found the title of his next album. The album also features recent singles “Electrify My Love” – one of the most added recent songs at Triple A radio, “Meant for Livin’” – a funk-driven, jubilant track that was released in late-January and recently was featured as KCRW’s “Today’s Top Tune” – and “Feel Good.”